If you are at all like me I find that I much prefer soaps to creams but I have a few creams that I really enjoy the scent of. I found one day that I had left the top off of a tub of TOBS Eton College cream for a couple of days. The result was a dried cream that was of the consistency of a soft Italian soap ie. a croap. I have since used a food dehydrator to dry out some other creams and transform them into croaps. The results have been fantastic. The soaps produce wonderful lather and for me are much more enjoyable to use now. Has anyone else ever tried this? If not you should!

I have an old DR HARRIS Arlington shaving cream in pot that has the consistency of a semi hard soap, not croap - but harder. Not DR HARRIS soap triple milled hard, but quite hard and it lathers beautifully.

My tube of LAVANDA cream is rock hard to press out and lathers like a champion, if I can press it out at all

Since making soaps, I've been curious about the difference in making a croap v. a cream. I'm still not sure what the exact difference is, but I think the only difference is a cream is whipped more and has more water.

Using a dehydrator is a very interesting experiment. Does it leave residue on the sides? How much does it shrink?

(08-04-2014, 07:48 PM)CHSeifert Wrote: I have an old DR HARRIS Arlington shaving cream in pot that has the consistency of a semi hard soap, not croap - but harder. Not DR HARRIS soap triple milled hard, but quite hard and it lathers beautifully.

My tube of LAVANDA cream is rock hard to press out and lathers like a champion, if I can press it out at all

I guess I shouldn't surprised that it lathers so well because all that has been lost in the dehydration process is the water.
I guess the biggest draw for me on this process is that I feel like to product lasts longer. Creams seem to disappear quickly but soaps seem to last a long time, and I always overload the brush from the soap.

(08-04-2014, 09:29 PM)asharperrazor Wrote: Since making soaps, I've been curious about the difference in making a croap v. a cream. I'm still not sure what the exact difference is, but I think the only difference is a cream is whipped more and has more water.

Using a dehydrator is a very interesting experiment. Does it leave residue on the sides? How much does it shrink?

If shaving creams are made the same way as a cream soap (like "bath whip") then there is some extra superfat involved, and longer cure time (called rotting for whatever reason).

The recently-posted Tabula Rasa process pictorial only had a rest of a couple of days, though, so who knows. I haven't seen a technical explanation of what's supposed to be happening during the "rot."
This isn't a shaving soap formulation, but here's a tutorial on a cream soap. The end result seems similar to what we know as shaving creams.

My experience thus far has been that the cream retains all of it wonderful properties. All that has been lost in the dehydration process is the water in the cream. Once the water is added back the lather will be just as good as it would have been without dehydrating it.

I actually did that to on my creams which is now a croap. But in the process I added more glycerin for post shave properties. The cream I used was veleiro creme da barbear. This SC consistency was not smooth at all. It has a good amount of lanolin chunks in it, so when bowl lathering it would not dissolve properly into a lather. But after the process of making it a croap, it performs significantly better.

(08-06-2014, 04:52 AM)Balj86 Wrote: I actually did that to on my creams which is now a croap. But in the process I added more glycerin for post shave properties. The cream I used was veleiro creme da barbear. This SC consistency was not smooth at all. It has a good amount of lanolin chunks in it, so when bowl lathering it would not dissolve properly into a lather. But after the process of making it a croap, it performs significantly better.

Did you just stir the additional glycerin into the cream before drying it out?

(08-06-2014, 04:52 AM)Balj86 Wrote: I actually did that to on my creams which is now a croap. But in the process I added more glycerin for post shave properties. The cream I used was veleiro creme da barbear. This SC consistency was not smooth at all. It has a good amount of lanolin chunks in it, so when bowl lathering it would not dissolve properly into a lather. But after the process of making it a croap, it performs significantly better.

Did you just stir the additional glycerin into the cream before drying it out?

Yup, but during the drying process I would mix it up every 2-3 days. I also left it in cool place with no light in order to cure/harden.

I have some TOBS Grapefruit that is really runny. It came that way too. The performance is good though. I only use it every once in a while, and when I do, it has a thick, dried skin on top, pretty much like pudding.

I've often thought about drying it out some, but I don't want the scent to dissipate. Did you notice that the scent was less after dried out?

(08-06-2014, 06:56 AM)BriDroid Wrote: I have some TOBS Grapefruit that is really runny. It came that way too. The performance is good though. I only use it every once in a while, and when I do, it has a thick, dried skin on top, pretty much like pudding.

I've often thought about drying it out some, but I don't want the scent to dissipate. Did you notice that the scent was less after dried out?

I wondered about the scent diminishing when I first attempted drying out a cream. I honestly can't say that the scents changed at all. I have to admit that the two creams I have tried it with (TOBS sandalwood and eton college) have stronger scents to begin with. Still I did not perceive a change in the scent.

(08-06-2014, 06:56 AM)BriDroid Wrote: I have some TOBS Grapefruit that is really runny. It came that way too. The performance is good though. I only use it every once in a while, and when I do, it has a thick, dried skin on top, pretty much like pudding.

I've often thought about drying it out some, but I don't want the scent to dissipate. Did you notice that the scent was less after dried out?

My experience with leaving soaps out is that they may dissipate a bit on the very surface, but after a few uses the scent is usually just as present as it was before.

Good to hear. I'm going to try and dry it out some. The runny cream has always bugged me since I got this tub. I read online, and others also have had some runny TOBS creams. At least I'm not the only one.